Global Bibliometric Analysis of the 50 Most-Cited Articleson Postoperative Rehabilitation After Hip and Knee Joint Replacement

Background: Postoperative rehabilitation is a crucial aspect of hip and knee joint replacement for functional recovery; however, influential studies are scattered throughout orthopedic, rehabilitation, and health-services journals. Prior bibliometric analyses have been limited to TKA or comprehensive perioperative rehabilitation. Objective: To describe the citation impact, publication trends, authorship, clinical topics, study types, and evidence of design of the 50 most cited articles in postoperative rehabilitation of the hip and knee. MethodsThe search concepts were constructed using terms for joint replacement or arthroplasty combined with rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, exercise, mobilization, recovery, and postoperative care. Records were ranked by Times Cited and screened until 50 eligible articles were identified. Citation indicators, h- and g-indices, citation-weighted summaries, recurrent-author and topic-term analyses, as well as VOSviewer keyword and co-citation mapping were analyzed. Evidence levels were used as design classifications and no formal risk of bias assessment was made. The number of citations is based on 2025 data. Results: The 50 articles, published from 1995 to 2023, received 2,717 citations (range, 11–381; mean, 54.3; median, 33; h-index, 31; g-index, 50). The most highly cited articles (top 10) accounted for 53.2% of the citations. The United States accounted for 42.0% of articles and 58.7% of citations. The percentage of knee-only studies was 56.0%, hip-only studies 20.0%, and hip/knee or lower limb studies 24.0%. Randomized trials were the most frequent (30.0%), followed by prospective cohort studies (20.0%) and systematic reviews and meta-analysis (22.0%). Conclusion: Cited research is concentrated in knee arthroplasty, Western countries, and specialist journals. Previous research has focused on strength and functional recovery, and digital and home-based rehabilitation has been a recent development. Findings represent literature, not the entire field, and are subject to database, language, citation-age, and citation-quality biases.